Drawing by Falcon Hildred
Gwylfa Calvinistic Methodist chapel, Manod, Blaenau Ffestiniog, 1977
Many nonconformist chapels are no longer places of worship. The afterlife of these buildings is varied, but their large internal spaces sometimes invite reuse as workshops. Gwylfa Methodist Chapel in Manod was designed in 1906 by the architect Robert Lloyd Jones of Caernarfon to have a 'show-façade' complete with that iconic element of many gable ended chapels, the 'Giant Arch'. The impact of the Lombardic style, chosen to distinguish the chapel as much as possible from the domestic and commercial buildings of Blaenau Ffestiniog, has been subsumed by advertising and as the chapel finds new use as a garage and petrol station. It has since been demolished. Falcon refers to the subject as 'St Duckhams' after the oil brand on sale. The drawing was done on site and caught in a rainstorm, so that it had to be recoloured and restretched at home.
Ref. FHA 01_102